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EAST ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Illinois transportation officials are warning commuters about a major road closure that begins at 9:00 Friday night.

Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Jeff Church says the department realizes the nine-day closure of eastbound I-64 at the 55-70 split will be a major inconvenience.

“The detour that we’re going to have set up for this project is Interstate 55-70 northbound to Interstate 255 southbound back to Interstate 64,” he explained at a press conference Thursday.

The closure is the longest road closure related to construction of the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge.

Church is encouraging Metro East drivers to use alternate routes or even consider taking MetroLink until I-64 reopens on the morning of September 23.

Knowing it will be a major disruption for commuters, Church says I-DOT will penalize the project’s contractor $2,500 for every 15 minutes the road remains closed past the deadline of 9:00 a.m. on September 23.

“So that’s $10,000 an hour and obviously we’re doing that because it’s a major route for commuters and we want to try to minimize that impact,” he added.